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Sounds of sorrow permeated the crowd.

“Felita wants to leave? Why?’

“Hasn’t she always been our West-Resisting City’s person?”

“Why does our protector Felita want to leave now? What will we do in the future?”

“Are we really going to die here……”

Hearing the voices of complaint, my smile gradually fell apart. I coldly berated:

“Why? You all really have the nerve to ask this question. Think about what you’ve done to her, are you truly unaware of what you’ve done in your hearts? Sure, she might have a speck of Demon blood in her, but has she ever done anything untoward to you? From a young age, she had to watch on helplessly as her mother was tied onto a stake and burned to death. From a young age, she was tortured by some of you in the crowd without fighting back! She, a sorcerer with Demon blood, fought as if her life depended on it to defend us humans, but what about you? You wanted her to die, you wanted to put her into a situation where she would have no hope of survival! Submitting to the Demons? Fancy of you all to think of this, fancy of you all to think up such a crafty tactic——”

“Do you all know how uncommon a sorcerer is? There’s simply no reason for her to stay in West-Resisting City because wherever she goes, she’ll be treated as the guest of honor. But because she promised that non-blood relative grandfather of hers, she stubbornly stayed here. And the result of it? The noble lords bullied her! You all followed the nobles in bullying her! How impressive for the entire city to shout ‘kill her’; how come you don’t have such unflinching righteousness now?”

“I know, most of you haven’t done things like this; you were just following the crowd. I understand those of you who didn’t speak up, because once you spoke up for her, you would be labelled a comrade of Demons; there would be no place for you to even raise your head once you did. But you all should also place yourself in her position and think, after experiencing so many events that would cause your heart to freeze, what reason is there left for her to stay behind in West-Resisting City?”

After I finished speaking, I feigned a helpless sigh and put on the appearance of being at my wit’s end.

The crowd turned silent.

Anyone who had even a bit of conscience wouldn’t know how to reply.

But unfortunately, a sharp and unkind-looking woman queerly muttered:

“Hmph, what’s the point of acting so pretentious, just leave if you want to leave. Even without her, Felita, it’s not like we won’t be able to go on living.”

The moment her voice fell, without me needing to speak, the surrounding people immediately glared at her.

It was as if a barrel of gunpowder was ignited.

Four or five people instantly pounced on her, pushing her onto the floor and beating her up as they scolded:

“**** your mother, I, your father, have long since seen you as an eyesore! It’s you that takes the lead to bully Felita, do you even have the face to say these words? I’ll kill you, you lowly woman! I’ll kill you, you shameless thing!!”

More people started joining in on the beating.

Even more people were dragged out as targets for beating.

“It’s him! He’s one of the people that joined in on killing Felita’s grandfather!”

“This person is someone who colluded with Pierce!”

“Restrain him! He’s one of the youngsters that splashed Felita with toilet water!”

“Beat him up! Let’s see if he still dares to spread malicious rumors about Felita!!”

“You usually have the skill to bully Felita, how come you’re not speaking now?!”

The crowd spontaneously broke up into multiple circles. Those who originally bullied Felita were ferreted out and as long as they were rooted out, they would be given a healthy dose of beating. Anguished wailing could be heard from everywhere:

“Stop hitting……I’ll never dare to……”

“I apologize, I’ll apologize to Felita……aiyo!”

“Stop kicking my face, ouch ouch ouch……uwaaah……”

I stood quietly, unmoving on the platform.

Approximately 200 to 300 people were beaten until they were covered with cuts and bruises. Their blood spilled on the ground and it was unknown as to whether or not they would survive. The power of the masses is very strong, after all. I didn’t know if this could be called the earliest form of “crowdsourcing information”, but in any case, as long as a person was discovered, regardless of whether the person was a man, woman, young or old, they would be hit until they were kneeling and calling out for mercy. At this very moment, everyone seemed to become incarnations of justice as they used their small fists to crazily hammer the offender’s stomach.

As I watched people getting beaten within an inch of their life, I was silently thinking to myself. At that time when they were surrounding Felita and wantonly beating her up, did they ever think that they would be treated the same way, that they would be labelled an ‘outsider’ and arbitrarily beaten up without reason?

This was the best solution that I could think up.

If the masses were straightforwardly told to hand over those bullies to Felita, it was very likely that it would cause them to resist, leading them to band together and crazily diss me, the new City Lord, behind my back. But now it’s different. When I threw a fearful “crisis” that didn’t even exist at them, they would naturally give priority in proving themselves to be innocent and sell out their comrade that did cruel things due to their survival-seeking instinct.

Afterwards, they would most likely even thank me.

I coldly observed this comical play. Glancing at Aleya, I discovered that her expression was just as indifferent and she didn’t criticize my method for being despicable.

After almost all of the identified people lost consciousness, there were people gasping for breath as they beseeched me:

“Sir City Lord, sir City Lord! Please help us resolve things with Felita and make her rescue our city!”

“Right, sir City Lord, it was these people that bullied her, we didn’t do anything wrong!”

“Sir City Lord, I beg you, talk to her, as long as she’s willing to remain, then we’ll definitely treat her well in the future!”

I sneered.

Why didn’t you do this earlier??

Must you not stop until you reach the Yellow River, must you stubbornly insist on your own ideas??¹

But let things be. I also don’t want to condemn them anymore. Pierce’s head was already cut off by someone and the corpses of those pig-headed nobles were already thrown into the wilderness. At this time, those people that bullied Felita every day were already beaten up to the point where it was unclear whether they were still alive or dead. This result is already enough. The level of thought shown by the masses is directly related to the education they get and with how poor of a region West-Resisting City is, I didn’t expect them to be wise or bravely step forward when Felita was bullied——

In other words, if they actually did help back then, then what work would there be left for me to do?

I nodded and promised:

“Alright! But I don’t dare to guarantee whether or not I will be able to successfully persuade her to stay. I’ll do my best to persuade her, but truth to tell you all, even if she does stay behind, I never want to ever see anyone badmouth her again since what she’s already done for our West-Resisting City is extreme benevolence. If she stays, then there is friendship between her and the city; if she decides to leave, then it wasn’t meant to be. If I’m made known that someone’s doing things behind my back and provoking her, then I’ll make that person battle solo against the Demon Race army——can you guarantee to me that you won’t do this!”

The sound of people slapping their chests in guarantee echoed the premises.

I brought Aleya down the stage and as we were leaving the crowd, I casually tore off the mourning clothes I was wearing.

Pierce, considering the fact that you’ve helped me as a scapegoat, I should grieve over your death for half an hour.

But once I think about the amount of cruel things you’ve once done……I think it’s fine if I just don’t.

1. It’s just the MC complaining about the people being stubborn mules.